Vancouver wants its low-income residents back

VANCOUVER—After a massive run-up in home prices over the past decade, Vancouver is trying to get its lower-income residents back.

A data analysis by city staff shows the share of residents making below $30,000 a year fell from 34 per cent in 2005 to 28 per cent in 2015, while the share of Vancouverites making over $80,000 increased from 13 per cent in 2005 to 28 per cent in 2015.

Chief planner Gil Kelley, left, pictured with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson in 2017, has rolled out a plan to create substantially more housing for low-income residents priced out of the city. (Jennifer Gauthier / StarMetro)

“While rising median incomes may account for some of this change, these trends indicate a risk to the long-term diversity and resilience of our city,” city planners wrote in a report presented to council Tuesday.

Six months ago, Vancouver city council approved a new direction for housing, one that emphasized building new housing targeted toward specific income bands. It was a departure from the mostly market-based approach that had been in place. On Tuesday, staff presented an updated report to mayor and council.

“We found in our investigation that much of the new supply generated in Vancouver since 2010 or 2012 has been very high end, and it’s really more of a result of investment of foreign and domestic capital,” Gil Kelley, the city’s chief planner, told reporters in a June 13 technical briefing.

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To create a place for low-income residents in Vancouver, the city will require that new large developments devote 30 per cent of the project to affordable housing (20 per cent for the lowest incomes and 10 per cent for moderate incomes). Previously, the city required 20 per cent of the project to be social housing.

As well as the changes to single family zoning, city staff are also planning to consolidate social housing initiatives into a $2 billion endowment fund, which would include revenue from Vancouver’s empty homes tax and developer fees, as well as contributions from the provincial and federal governments. That consolidated fund will be used to build the 12,000 units of social and supportive housing units the city wants over the next 10 years.

While the city has led the region in building new rental housing, much of the new stock is targeted to people earning $50,000 to $100,000 a year. The lack of rental options for lower-income people may be “driving a loss of income diversity in Vancouver,” according to the staff report. Homelessness, which reached a 10-year high in 2016, continues to increase: between 2017 and 2018, the number of homeless people in Vancouver went up by two per cent.

Jen St. Denis is a Vancouver-based reporter covering affordability and city hall. Follow her on Twitter: @jenstden